Kara Rudikoff
Personality Kara tends to be cheerful but has difficulties with social situations and other people. "Being yourself" feels oddly foreign to her, seeing as she isn't sure how she should act in the first place. She always wants to help other people, and do whatever she can to make them happy - not out of want for attention or affection, but because it just makes her happy to see other people happy. This can also be one of Kara's weaknesses, however, because she is incredibly scared of hurting anyone else, and will avoid even the possibility of making someone angry, hurting them, or doing something wrong by all means available. She can be easily manipulated by this fear of hurting others or making them angry, and it's a struggle to sometimes overcome it when necessary (e.g. risk-taking, decision-making, etc). She's pansexual and as such is attracted to other people regardless of gender. Although she'd never tell anyone out of embarrassment, she hopes to one day find someone she loves who will tolerate her flaws, accept her, and take care of her. Her favorite things to do include listening to music, babysitting/volunteering at the nursery (before she had to leave home), taking care of Natasha, reading, baking cookies, and video games. Social Anxiety is difficult for Kara, but for some reason she isn't afraid around small children or babies, especially her own little one. Her anxiety also tends to disappear when another friend immediately needs (or appears to need) her help. (If someone is in front of her, sad or afraid, she'll almost always prioritize them and not be as scared.) Kara is fiercely loyal and isn't afraid to fight to protect those who she loves. History (Parents) (Before Kara was born, as with most children, the parents had to actually get together. And the Olympian Gods being like they are, it wasn't a regular encounter. Robert Rudikoff was a primary teacher, teaching Grade Five at Fairland Heights school in California. His life, for the most part, was average. He had worked hard as a child, grown with loving parents to support him, and had went through University with passing grades, and had now been in a teaching position for five years. He was going to miss Fairland - after five years, it was the usual practice for teachers to transfer to another school. But in the meantime, he taught, and was happy helping children and teaching them what he knew. Hera, on the other hand, was having a significantly worse time. Zeus had cheated for the UMPTEENTH time, and she had quite frankly had enough. After causing a couple of minor-scale natural disasters, she had gone down to the United States in a huff, to calm down and perhaps put away her anger deep down, like she always did, and somehow forgive her husband. But Gods help anyone who got in her way, because right now, she felt ready to kill. After walking around, stress-eating, angrily shopping, buying various cute things she found on impulse, and sending some cows after Demigods that had annoyed her, she decided to revisit one of her favourite pastimes to help her mood - caring for the young. She disguised herself as some poor Grade 4 Teacher (who for the time being was at home, conveniently sleeping, definitely not cursed into unconsciousness), and walked to the nearby school at which she would teach. Mr. Rudikoff was in the staff room, drinking some overpriced coffee when one of his favourite Colleagues walked in. "Morning, Dana," he said absentmindedly. "How're you holding up?" Hera was about to smite him when she remembered that the woman she was impersonating was, in fact, a woman named Dana, not Queen of the Gods. "Not at my best," she said through gritted teeth. "I have a continuing dislike for men right now." Rudikoff raised an eyebrow, but wisely decided to not ask about the circumstances. "Well, sounds like you need this more than me then." He offered a doughnut to her. 'Dana' eyed the pastry suspiciously, but decided to take it. "Thank you," she said through a bite. It was surprisingly delicious. Much later in the school day, after both frustration and joy from children, Hera's students were to go to gym class with Mr. Rudikoff's. She lined her students up ("Joyce, NOW please") and led them to Mr. Rudikoff's classroom. What she saw surprised her. The man was reading a book to his students, and every single one was reading along in their own copy. Not one was playing around or not paying attention. They adore him, she realized. He has a way. The moment was somewhat spoiled when a child tugged on her dress. "Miss Drew, can you knock?" She rolled her eyes, and knocked. Every child in the classroom looked over, and began chattering and giggling as Mr. Rudikoff took them all and led them to the gym. Hera followed suit. After the students were dropped off, Hera looked at the man, with a newfound respect. "They're paying such attention to you. How do you do that?" But in response, Robert just smiled. "I don't know, really. I just play with and teach them, and they do the rest. They're all great kids." And thus, it began. Hera continued to impersonate Dana, and visited Robert at the school each day. The two grew steadily closer. Some other teachers remarked in private that the two seemed inseparable when not teaching. And as time went on, they were, for the most part. Meeting outside of school for lunches and even a few dinners, Hera slowly began to realize that she felt differently about this man than other mortals. He... made her happy. And then, of course, Zeus smashed this happiness into a thousand tiny pieces. He had cheated again. With another mortal. A royal mortal. A QUEEN. Hera screamed at hearing it. Hermes, before he could even try to say 'Don't shoot the messenger' was blasted with a beam of energy that left his ears ringing for weeks afterwards. She screamed, and raged, and eventually just cried. The next morning, the Queen of the Gods walked to work early in the pouring rain. Not Zeus's rain. It was caused by her, and she didn't have the heart to try to control it. She sat in the staff room, nursing a cup of coffee, and sat there. Robert arrived early before anyone else, as he always did, and hung up a sopping wet raincoat. At seeing Hera, he froze. "Dana..." She couldn't take it. She broke into tears. She flashed back to her regular form. She cried, and cried, and she couldn't stop. She told him everything. Her name, Zeus, what had happened, everything. To his credit, Robert didn't run. He didn't understand, but he held Hera and let her cry, let her talk, let her finally feel what she needed to. After she had calmed down, a few minutes before class was to start, she snapped her fingers wearily and reverted back to Dana. "Thank you," she said. She couldn't say anything else. Robert just nodded. "Come with me after work?" Hera sniffed and nodded back. On that night, Hera laid with him. She was angry at Zeus, and wanted to hurt him, but more than that... she loved the mortal. Maybe not enough to do such a thing, but on that night, she didn't care. She stayed with him, and felt comforted, and safe. Whoever thought a mortal could help me so much? She thought sleepily, as she drifted off. In the morning, she realized the gravity of what she had done, and felt... drained. Empty. And far, far away, from the clouds up above, in a temple... She heard laughter. Aphrodite. Years ago, she had insulted Aphrodite, and played a practical joke on her. Revenge had come. Hera's hormones and emotions had been manipulated, and she had fallen for Robert. In an instant, she was at Olympus, Aphrodite's neck in her hand. It would be so easy. A simple squeeze, and the goddess of beauty would have to spend years to reform again. But then, from far away, she saw Robert stir. She dropped the choking goddess, and went to him. It hurt her so much... but she replaced his memories, that of him learning of the gods, and of Hera. It was all filled with memories of the real Dana - the one still sleeping in her apartment. Hera took Dana and placed her next to Robert, and filled her head with the memories of the time Robert had shared with the Queen of Olympus - but putting Dana in Hera's place. After a little hesitation, she also gave Dana information about Olympus, and the gods - she sorted it out with the woman, in her mind. Why? Because she had an idea. "I'm blessing you and Robert with a gift. I must return to Olympus, but... With the knowledge I have given you, you will be able to take care of her." And she placed the newly concieved child that she carried within her own godly body into Dana's mortal frame. She never told Dana that it was Robert's child, or that it was Hera who had courted Robert for so long. All Dana knew was that she carried within her a child of a goddess. Eight months later, after a long-awaited marriage and no small amount of preparation, Kara Rudikoff was born into the world. Secretly Daughter of Hera, but to the rest of the world, Daughter of Robert and Dana Rudikoff.) History (Kara) (Kara was born to a loving father and mother, but with struggling health. She recovered after special care in hospital, and soon Dana and Robert took her home. She grew up in a small apartment in California. From the beginning she seemed different to Dana, not like other babies. She didn't cry nearly as much, and she always giggled at her father. But Robert and Dana didn't care. She was their beautiful child. While initially a premature baby (born before full term), Kara grew quite healthily. She wasn't one to enjoy athletics, but she kept fit playing with all the other little boys and girls in the neighboorhood, and at school. It seemed funny that both her parents went to school with her sometimes, but she didn't really care. She loved school, and soaked up all the knowledge she could get. But of course, being a child of Hera, life just couldn't be quiet and peaceful. On her 8th birthday, Kara was skipping around the tarmac at reccess, happy as ever. She'd gotten everything right on her spelling test, her hair was in a pretty braid her mom made her, and she was wearing a pink dress. Everything seemed great. But then some grade 7 boy came flying across the tarmac, crashing down in a pile of bruises and scrapes. Ignoring the immediate screams of her classmates, who ran away to find an equally scared teacher inside, Kara looked where he had came from and saw what looked like a giant ant. Kara, mind you, was a kind, innocent little girl. She was careful to be nice to everyone. She was smart, and she wasn't immediately scared. She walked a little closer. "Hey, um... mister Ant?" She shook a little. "Can you leave my classmates alone?" The giant Ant growled, its ridiculously large pincers snapping and sizzling with what might be saliva. Or acid. "I know Tommy was hitting your friends with the magnifying glass thingy, but he's a meanie sometimes. I'm sorry. But don't hurt the other people! It's not nice." Kara, while being smart and kind, was still a little girl. So it didn't occur to her that the giant ant might not want to be nice. Or that it was a monster. The Myrmekes, or "Mr. Ant", spat a stream of poison straight at her. Kara's eyes widened and she dodged. At least she was a little girl with reflexes. She ran towards the school doors. By now the school had went into lockdown, all the students hiding inside their classrooms because of "someone dangerous" outside. But by some miracle, the doors were still unlocked. Kara bolted inside. The ant gave chase, melting its way through the wall. Thinking fast, Kara saw a volleyball sitting near her, and threw it at the monster, hitting it square in the face. Mr. Ant screeched, and Kara sprinted away as fast as she could. She raced down the halls, not looking back to see if the monster was giving chase, and saw an empty classroom at the end of the hall. She opened it, ran in and in a blur slammed the door shut. Robert Rudikoff looked up from his desk. "Hey, I thought that was loc-" He registered that Kara was in front of him. "Kara? Are you ok? What's happening?" "Daddy, there's a giant ant, he's chasing me, he spits stuff, I'm scared, he keeps following me-" "What?" The door blasted aside, and an extremely annoyed Mr. Ant stalked into the room hissing. "Kara, get back!" "Daddy!" What happened next seemed to be all a blur for Kara. Poison gushing through the air, hitting her father, her father running forward to body slam the ant with a chair into the wall, a metal leg of the chair stabbing the ant, Mr. Ant exploding into dust... It all happened at once. Kara was instantly at her father's side. "Daddy, no, no don't go, please, it's ok, you'll be ok." Robert Rudikoff looked up into his daughter's eyes, his skin steaming, half of his clothes burnt away. "I love you... Kara. Take care of your mother, ok?" He coughed and grimaced, keeping himself from screaming in pain, a tear falling from his right eye as he felt acid eat through his flesh and bones. "No!" Kara held her father's hand as he passed away. She was never the same from that point onward. The school ultimately decided that he was killed by a man with an acidic chemical weapon, in a tragic homicide. But Kara knew the truth. Her father was killed by a monster. She was afraid from then on. She stayed on her own, not often talking with other children. She loved her mother, and she stayed close to her, even throughout her teenage years. Her grades slipped, but she stayed in school, continuing to work hard. One day, she started to volunteer at a daycare, and found that surprisingly, she was calm. The babies were so... hopeful. Peaceful, and pure. It felt safe. So she kept going back, and helping more. After a couple of years of this, Kara was beginning to be happy again. She had a routine - go to school, go to the daycare, come home, be with her mother and rest. Things were ok. She was safe. Although she missed her father every day, she wasn't having nightmares anymore. She was ok again. Until the next monster. On her way to high school on a cloudy day, Kara was doing ok. It was a good morning. She'd eaten some toast, a bowl of yogurt and a glass of apple juice, and had made it out of the door even a little early. Things were looking up. Unfortunately, Kara wasn't. Which meant that she was caught completely off guard when the chimera pounced and swiped at her, sending her flying into the street and crashing into a van on the opposite side of the road. Groaning, she got up, and blanched. In front of her stood the single weirdest thing she'd ever seen. A mix of snake, lion, goat, and maybe dragon or something with wings, the creature in front of her was... just ugly. It roared. Bounding forward again, it slashed with its front claws, Kara barely dodging. She sprinted between its legs, only to take a blast of acid to her right shoulder from its... snake-tail? She screamed in pain and tore off her spring jacket, the poison dissolving it into nothing. She bolted away as fast as she could, but behind her she could feel a great heat. She rolled to one side, and a stream of fire burned past her, sizzling some poor old lady's bushes. While continuing to run and dodge, she attempted to think through the pain, and consider what she had. School binder. Useless. Extra Pencils. Extra useless. Shoes. Gym clothes. Spare socks. EpiPen. Wait. EpiPen! She sprinted behind a car and quickly took out her EpiPen, for if she had a reaction to peanuts. Epi has adrenaline in it. With some trepidation, she took off the blue cap, and stabbed herself in the thigh with the orange end, sending a needle into her leg. She hissed in pain. Not loud enough for most people to hear, but loud enough that a Chimera could. It jumped and clawed at the car, sending it flying and leaving Kara exposed. The chimera licked its lips. It was clearly hungry. Joy. Kara dodged a blast of acid from the creature's tail and ran on. Without stopping, Kara sprinted onward. Not caring where she was going, she weaved through city streets, around traffic, as far away as she could get. After some time, when her vision was spinning a little, she stopped. The Chimera was nowhere to be seen. Kara was in an alley, somewhere downtown, that much she could tell, but she was very lost. The adrenaline from the EpiPen had definitely worn off, and she didn't know what adverse health effects it would give her. She took a deep breath. She got clocked from the side by a fist. "Hey, pretty girl," whispered a sleazy-sounding man, locking her in a choke hold. "Today's my lucky day, huh?" She couldn't reply. She was exhausted, choking and trying desperately to breathe, feeling light-headed. She tried to struggle, but she felt her strength fading away. The last thing she felt was the man holding onto her. No, she thought, And then everything went dark. She woke up with her head pounding, her vision blurred and her entire body feeling weak. Her clothes were in shreds, the man from before gone. She couldn't move. She tasted blood in her mouth. Wait. Now there was a boy. He was running over, saying something. For a second, Kara thought he was carrying a sword, but her clouded mind dismissed the thought. She felt him cover her body in something, and then she cried out as he lifted her. The boy almost dropped her, but instead knelt down gently, stroking her hair, holding her in his lap. Through watery, swollen, blurry eyes, Kara saw his mouth form a few words. Can you hear me? It's ok. You're safe now. She went limp, and gave in to unconsciousness. When she woke up, she was in a bed. Cleaned up, wrapped in a few blankets, a cool cloth on her forehead and bandages all over her body. The boy from the alley, the one who lifted her up, was sitting beside the bed. "You're awake, thank god. I was afraid for a while. But it looks like the nectar helped." She tried to sit up, and winced. Everything hurt. The boy was up in a second. "Hey, hey, easy. It's ok, I promise. I'm here to help. You're still really hurt, alright?" Kara, with difficulty, turned her head to look at him. "Where am I?" "My apartment, near New York. You were in critical condition for a lot of the trip, but I had enough supplies here to help you. Most mortal stuff wouldn't have worked." She frowned in confusion. "What? Who are you?" He smiled. "Hey, let me explain." He talked for a long time. His name was Daniel. He explained to Kara that he was a child of Hephaestus, and that Kara too was a daughter of the gods. He had been out to visit a friend in California and had found a Chimera. After killing it, he looked for the demigod it was chasing, but only found Kara hours later, when she was bleeding and unconscious in the alley. Someone had beaten her, and violated her. Seeing her condition, Daniel covered Kara in a spare cloak he had, carried her to his car, and drove back to New York while keeping her stable with a magical substance called Nectar. "Drink of the gods," he clarified. "Mad healing powers. But anyways, I took you back here so that I could heal you completely. Sorry for not asking, you were just kind of... really unconscious. Anyways, is it ok if you stay a little longer so that you can heal properly? I know you might want to heal up, but if you get attacked again..." Kara nodded. "I'm no good to anyone dead, I guess." In the process of healing, Kara discovered something that almost broke her heart completely. She was pregnant. She told Daniel, and he understood completely. He offered to let Kara stay longer, and she accepted. Daniel took care of her, and nursed her back to health. He taught her more of the Greek gods and their world while she healed, and her child grew. He comforted her when she was scared. When she asked why he was doing so much, he smiled wistfully. "Just doing what I wish I could've sooner. Helping people who deserve it." "You're an amazing person." "Says the mama who just came back from death, and is dealing pretty well with a vastly expanded universe being thrown at her." Kara giggled. The two became best friends, and spent as much time as they could together, learning and laughing. Kara, while increasingly becoming more scared about having her child, was slowly becoming happy again. When it was time, and she had her first contraction, Kara freaked out. "Daniel!" He was there in an instant, and quickly saw what the situation was. "Hey, it's ok. Come on, let's go. You can do it." "I can't," she sobbed. Daniel turned her head to face him. "You can. You're strong. You're the strongest demigod I know. And I'm way, way proud of you for making it this far. Just a bit more, ok?" He took Kara's hand, and she nodded. "Ok." "It'll be ok." The pair drove to the local hospital (because ambulances are crazy expensive). It took a while, but after some struggling, the 17-year-old girl gave birth to a baby girl: Natasha Rudikoff. The nurse passed the tiny newborn to Daniel. He cooed at her and made the little baby laugh, and Kara smiled. Kara kept smiling for a long time. A few months later, when her little one was gurgling away and Daniel was happily playing with her, Kara finally decided on what she wanted to do next. She and Daniel had discussed Camp Half-Blood - a safe haven beyond the reach of monsters, but she hadn't had time to consider it for so long. Now that she was happy again, and safe, and healthy, it was time to move forwards. And going to this safe place just sounded... right. Daniel was sad at first, but he understood. He helped Kara pack, and got everything ready. In the morning, they drove in silence to near the gates of Camp Half-Blood. The trio exited the car, a sleeping Nata riding in Kara's pack. "Well, this is it," Daniel smiled. "You've got the diapers for Nata? And the Drachma?" Kara smiled back - a real smile. "Yep." She leaned forward and hugged him. "I'll miss you. Thank you so, so much for everything." And with that, she stepped back and waved. "Take care, Daniel." "You too." The Daughter of Hera stepped into the soft snow - not more than an inch high - and walked towards Half-Blood Hill, ready for whatever would come next.) In late April 2019, Kara went missing, along with Nata, fellow camper Jillian Ray, and Automaton Edith Mark 1. While the others have returned, she and Nata have yet to reappear... Kara's current age is 19. Powers Kara's powers are standard of those of children of Hera (and via a prize from the Hera Character Contest in Feb 2018, she has full access without the wait time). Natasha Basics Natasha (nicknamed Nata often) is Kara's baby girl. Adorable, toothless, cuddly and cheerful, she seems to melt the hearts of everyone she meets - as most babies do. Nata loves her pacifier, her stuffed blob (Kara's attempt at sewing, a round plush with two eyes), and most of all her mother. Nata is currently 9 months old. She has big, chocolate brown eyes, tufts of blonde hair, little chubby cheeks, and a gummy smile cute enough to get away with just about anything. She's smaller and a little weaker than most babies her age, due to being born prematurely, but luckily she doesn't seem to care. Personality/Traits Developmentally, Nata seems a bit ahead of her age in terms of comprehension and intellect. Her instincts are usually accurate, and she's very vocal for an 9-month-old. She cries rarely, and usually takes well to strangers. She may even have the basis of an empathy link with her mother, as evidenced by her mood and behaviour being uncannily similar at times. Nata has a tendency to chew on most objects she can get her hands on (due to her teething), but only rarely chews on her mother when she's nervous or teething badly. Relationships Equipment Relationships Category:Characters Category:Flopfish3